[MRCA] R-390 vs. R390A

[John Caldwell]

Ray,
As a rule of thumb, I always look to see if the locking gear (painted green)
is intact on the front of the R-390 gear box.  You must lock the gear train
before removing the RF deck or everything gets out of sync.  While not a
guarantee of working condition, flags are raised if it's missing, suggesting
somethings been played with.  Getting one back synchronized correctly is a
difficult task requiring an extensive vocabulary in a second language (or a
moderate case of Tourette's syndrome)

John 
WD8INC

-----Original Message-----
From: mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Ray Fantini
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2018 11:40 AM
To: R-1051 Discussion Group <r-1051 at mailman.qth.net>; 'Military
RadioCollectors Association' <mrca at mailman.qth.net>; 'milsurplus'
<milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [MRCA] R-390 vs. R390A

Thousand years ago I had a R-390 that I bought as a basket case, Had the
manual and tried and tried to get the mechanical systems aligned on that
radio but was never able to get it to work right on all the bands. Endless
cams, gears and some strange issues that when you got the radio to work in
one band segment it refused to work in another! 
Have been told of the nicer sound filters and superior B+ regulation and the
like on the R-390 but have to say after that trauma of trying to get that
R-390 up and running will stick with the R-390A, maybe it's just memory but
the R-390A at least for me is about a thousand times easier to work on and
have the striping, cleaning and mechanical alignment down to a simple
process that's all easy to follow from the manual so I will stay away from
its non "A" brother.
This entire R-390A operation on my part is only an attempt to try to
generate revenue to have additional funds to piss away on other projects and
to try to offset the high cost of shows like Dayton.  
But starting to think about what I have to shell out for radios that have
been in storage for decades, the labor involved in just getting these radios
cleaned up and working again and the logistics of loading up and dragging
them around starting to question the wisdom of the entire project. 
At the point now of thinking that at $400 to $500 each am just breaking even
but do have the small satisfaction of seeing radios that have been
languishing around in storage for twenty or so years coming back to life and
maybe being useful to someone else. 
Funny thing, you would think that the radio just sitting around and not
being used for a long time would not have as much affect as it does but just
think about it, if you parked a car and did not do anything with it for
twenty years do you think you can just get in it and drive away?

Ray F/KA3EKH